Special thanks to friends, Joyce and Rebekah, for sharing this story. And for being role models who made Julianna’s decision an easy one:
Julianna would come home from her new job working the register at Wendy's amazed at how rude some customers could be. The easy-going high school junior let it roll off her shoulders though. Then, after three weeks, she came home with a different story.
A young couple about 20 years old, if that, stood inside the restaurant door talking with a woman. Julianna watched while the woman offered the young man a five-dollar bill. “I'm sorry,” he said, “I can't accept that from you, but thank you anyway.”
The order he placed at Julianna’s register came to about $5. Julianna watched him fish out $2.98 in change. She said, “I'm sorry, but that isn't enough money to purchase your order.”
“Okay,” he asked, “could you take off the drinks?” He went on to explain, “My wife and I aren't working right now and we don't have a home. We don't use drugs, but we have to sell them to pay for food.” He asked if Wendy’s was hiring, but Julianna told him not right now. Maybe in a couple of weeks. He took the order to a table where his wife was sitting and started divvying up the food.
First break she got, Julianna purchased two senior citizen size drinks with her money and employee discount. She took the drinks to the young couple and said, “Love is an addiction. We aren't hiring right now, but come back in a couple of weeks.” The young man looked up at the teen, thanked her, and then started to cry.
“As a mother and a human being,” Julianna’s mother adds to the story, “I have been shown true compassion between one human being and another. Some kids and even adults would have walked right past the couple, said bad things to them, but one 16-year-old girl showed her true colors.
…I thanked God tonight for showing her the need and giving her the grace and ability to fill the need. When others would have turned their head and walked away, my daughter ran straight to heart of the matter…
The woman who tried to give the man five dollars saw all this take place, got in line, purchased a $40 gift card and gave it to the couple. Julianna said the man thanked her and started to cry again. I know she will be rewarded many times over as well.”
Note: In addition to working part-time at Wendy’s, speaking fluent German, playing the flute, volunteering at the local hospital and her church, being President of her school’s FBLA chapter, Julianna just got her driver’s permit!
